The chaotic city life needed a break and the ever-running me took a deep breath in my Spice jet flight on the morning of 9 th Aug'12. I flew over my capital city and said bye bye to a hush-hush life for a 4 day Goa Vacation - very much required else I would have broken down soon in the midst of this quintessential corporate life...woof-woof !
Goa in monsoon is a pleasure- the lush green city looks all the more lovely and the lesser crowd makes it loads more enjoyable, as it is we see a mob everyday in our city lives...my sincere advice to all of you - visit Goa during monsoons -the sight is a pleasure with rain above and sea below!
And now some highlights about our Goa Vacation :
Stay at OZRAN HEIGHTS BEACH RESORT
Small Vagator Beach Bardez,Goa-403509
Tel: +91 (832) 2274985 Mobile: 09921170081
I totally recommend Ozran beach resort - sea facing wooden cottages with beautiful balconies- Oh My God! We got the resort at a discounted off season rate with bed and breakfast, who anyways is at the resort for lunch & dinner , oh c'mon we r in Goa and the waves and the sand await us all the time!
The transfer from the Airport to the resort costed us INR 1500 and one hour of a drive- all the way to the north of Goa. After check in and a bit of resting, we swayed down to the only nearby shack. The first step on to the wet sand and whoa - we called it GOA! After the up and down climb we went to a nearby eatery for a full evening meal and my friends had their first sip of the famous Goan King's beer. I had heard the name umpteen times and realized that King's beer and the beautiful beaches of Goa go hand in hand. The harsh rain outside and beer and garam garam food inside- hmmm it makes me nostalgic...Oh God, I so wanna go back ! The evening was easy and since we didn't have any mode of transport, we relaxed at the resort and had dinner at a nearby shack before calling it a night- well a little early by Goa standards but don't forget we were up since morning to catch the flight and the excitement never let us sleep the night before :p
We hired 2 cars for the next 2 days and drove around to cover the length of the city. We started the day by visiting Fort Aguada, well finally after a wait of 10 years to visit this place since I first saw it in Dil chahta Hai. I loved every step, every sight, every feeling for I could feel the song rhyming in my mind -"Kaisa ajab ye safar hai, socho to haree ek hi bekhabar hai..." It started raining and we took shelter under the small cavings in the fort and trust me -it takes you to older times and it's a different feeling as one doesn't see all this in the hectic city. This was followed by lunch at Curlie's, Anjuna beach- I was full on my pasta and fries and salads and the non-vegetarians enjoyed their prawns and fish and everything edible - well vegetarians, be ready for some naan daal for Goa doesn't have much delicacies for us and 2 days of pasta and pizza drowns us of our appetite- I actually thought of carrying ready to eat dal makhni and shahi paneer the next time- sad but true.
And the real fun comes now - we entered the endless sea and even the Rain Gods supported us. The shower above and waves below- and I felt like a mermaid. I guess we are so spoilt by the bollywood movies that it's not possible to enter the sea and not feel like a diva and getting out all wet and thinking that the world is noticing us. And top it all by singing samundar mein nahake ..lalalalala- eeu I don't like the song but I still sang . After the encounter with the sand , the rain, the waves, the encounter with the cold started. Me being sensitive to even 24 degree AC temperature, ordered a nice soup and called it an evening and rushed to the hotel for a nice hot bath and changeover to clean clothes. At night, we went to the famous Tito's - stone's throw away from the Baga beach. Café Mambo is a famous pub for wearing your dancing shoes and swaying away to the tunes of Goa. Well, we didn't have much fun there, maybe it was a wrong day or whatever and left the place a little early than expected and called it Day 2.
Day 3 : Visit to an aloof Morjim beach- guys, do visit it. The car goes to the edge of the beach and some of us just ran inside the sea as soon as we got off. The long walk along the shore and gigantic sea waves and the super active current- absolute electric current bliss. We spent a long time there and the life guards came in many times to get us out. The swimmers tried their hand at the free stroke and the non-swimmers like me made merry by jumping on the super big waves. This was followed by a nice eating out at a nearby shack.
Day 4 : Oh no- Time to come back and end the Goa vacation. We woke up late, had a lazy breakfast, got ready, soaked up the sun and the sea and took our cab from the Ozran beach resort for the return flight. None of us wanted to come back, we wanted more for life is a supper and Goa is a better chef. I made a lil declaration to myself - to come here every year and re-live those censored moments that I could not mention here -aha, What happens in Goa, stays in Goa
This blog was originally published on Let's Expresso by Karan Lugani.